OG's CSGO roster down to 3 players as ISSAA gets benched

Fariha Bhatti Published 16/03/2021

OG has deactivated another rifler, Issa “⁠ISSAA⁠” Murad, following a disappointing run in ESL Pro League season 13.

The team’s lurker will move to the bench, effective immediately. The decision comes less than a month after OG removed Nathan “⁠NBK-⁠” Schmitt from its active roster and brought in Nikolaj “⁠niko⁠” Kristensen as a stand-in. The organization announced ISSAA’s benching and revealed that an internal rebuild is underway.

.@OG_ISSAA and the rest of the team have mutually agreed to part ways.
Thank you for your unmatched energy in the past 15 months and for the challenges faced together. The Beast from the East won’t be forgotten anytime soon. ???? Roster update: https://t.co/yHG3QqVNSq #DreamOG pic.twitter.com/t9xM6BjYQv — OG CS:GO (@OGcsgo) March 16, 2021

Considering OG’s current form, ISSAA’s exit isn’t surprising. Aleksi “⁠Aleksib⁠” Virolainen had previously revealed that ISSAA has been dealing with high ping due to an inability to travel to Europe for events. According to Aleksib, ISSAA couldn’t travel to Lisbon for OG’s bootcamp for its recent events, which hinted that his days in OG were numbered.

Aleksib speaks on OG, reveals Issaa can’t bootcamp with team

Despite the ping issue, ISSAA managed to be the team’s one of the highest-rated players, propelling OG to some of its victories, including second place at Intel Extreme Masters: XV Europe and Flashpoint Season 2. With ISSAA, OG had a successful headstart in 2019, but the team eventually slid into the background, despite a star-studded lineup. Due to obvious issues, OG had few options but to drop ISSAA.

“I’m a bit sad we couldn’t give ISSAA the optimal situation to bang heads, since he has proven throughout his career that he is a player capable of challenging the very best on the server,” OG coach Casper “ruggah” Due said.

CSGO team OG to undergo a revamp

OG recently dropped NBK- in a surprise move and with ISSAA going inactive, OG is officially down to three players. The organization has revealed that shakeups are inbound and OG will soon fill up the empty slots with other players.

“With our next event scheduled for mid-April, OG CSGO is now entering an internal rebuilding phase. Tryouts will occur in the next few days to find out the two missing warriors who will be wearing our colors in the forthcoming future,” OG stated.

The Danish esports organization’s CSGO division has recently been in a major slump. A losing streak coupled with underwhelming performances from its star players have raised many questions on the team’s viability at the top of the scene. OG has gone through dozens of tournaments with the inaugural roster that first came together in 2019. The team hadn’t made any changes during that time, but also hadn’t won any notable events.

The organization said that both of those things are changing, and that OG was set to be one of “the biggest names of the kingdom.”

With ISSAA out of the picture, OG is down to a three-man roster:

Aleksi “⁠Aleksib⁠” Virolainen
Mateusz “⁠mantuu⁠” Wilczewski
Valdemar “⁠valde⁠” Bjørn Vangså
Nikolaj “⁠niko⁠” Kristensen (stand-in)
Casper “⁠ruggah⁠” Due (coach)

Fariha Bhatti

About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

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